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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

New Shapes and Wirework

Lately I've been attempting to expand my knowledge and skill to include different styles and custom features. There are so many wonderful polymer artists to learn from out there, but I always want to put my own personal spin on everything I do and I hope these pieces reflect just that. I will continue to experiment with shapes and design features - adding my own twist and my own love for complex canes. I do have to laugh because so often an idea I find floating around in my head I find has already been thought of or something I consider unique has already been tried by another. Even so, I will continue to try to make my special dent in the polymer clay world.
These pieces aren't as complex as they may seem. They were all hand cut, though I will probably develop some templates of my own soon, since I like the shapes and want to make them more consistent.
For these pieces, I started out with a veneer from one of my lovely Stroppel Canes. I cut off slices, ran them through my pasta machine at a #5 (medium small) setting to get a constant depth, laid them out next to each other, burnished the seams, added a few cane slices, and then cut out my shapes. I used triangular 'shield' shapes for these because I wanted them to taper to a point, but any shape will do. I plan on experimenting with other shapes as well. I placed my shapes vertically a glass bottle that was about the diameter of a soda can. (Actually a soda can would work well here also - as long as your shapes aren't longer than the can.) I cured the clay on the bottle which gave me a wonderful dome shape. The back of the piece was then filled with scrap clay, trimmed flat, and then wrapped in a sheet of black clay with my new signature cane. Before curing, I inserted findings to hang the pendants or earrings that I had hand formed using a simple template I made with nails and wood. One more curing, an ice bath, lots of sanding and buffing and VOILA!
I will be adding some 'frames' to some future pieces and experimenting with using this technique with caned veneers and kaleidoscopes.